Just finished reading a copy I purchased as well. Figured I'd post my thoughts in this thread. Seems to be the place for it, if not pull it out.
Review of How to Brew by John Palmer
If you recall I did an intro review of "How to Brew by John Palmer where I talked about how the book starts off with a brief overview of the brewing process and what and how to extract brew. The extract brewing portion of the book is very short and seems to lack as much knowledgeable information as the rest of the book does. It could merely be poor placement of chapters though. Once you get through the first few chapters about brewing and extract brewing, Palmer goes in depth into each part of the brewing process. He describes malts, hops, yeast, water, aeration, hot breaks and so on. Through these chapters there is a lot of practical knowledge that can lead a novice brewer into a better beer making direction. However, it comes after Palmer has already described the extract brewing process. Personally, I think that information should come first just like it does later in the book when he gives a load of knowledge on all-grain brewing before turning anyone loose. If your thinking about homebrewing extracts, read sections one and two before deciding or starting to get a great idea of the overall brewing process.
Regardless, How to Brew is a very thorough book that I am extremely happy to have read and put onto my brewing shelf. The book is loaded with conversions, charts, recipe information, and many other useful tidbits that I didnt know until reading this book. Did you know that you can do something called Hot Side Aeration? This is the process of aerating your wort after the boil, but before it has come down to pitching temperatures. In other words, dont aerate your beer at all before its down to pitching temperatures or you run the risk of long-term oxidation and flavor stability.
Pros
How to Brew by John Palmer is a great resource for anyone starting to brew, novice brewers, people debating on making the all grain leap, and even expert brewers looking for guidance on changing their water composition for a stellar Pilsner. The book is very thorough and covers darn near all of the different subjects associated with brewing, right down to different metals or ways of fabricating your own equipment.
A couple of sections I really appreciated included the Is My Beer Ruined section. In this section Palmer describes the many different off flavors, what causes them and how to prevent them in the future.
I also enjoyed reading the section called Brewing with Extracts and Specialty Grains. This section gave me a great overview on the different base malts and specialty grains and what they do. Palmer discusses how certain grains will effect all the different aspects of your brew, including color, flavor, aroma, fermentability, and so on. It was really insightful for a novice brewer, like myself looking to increase my knowledge of what makes up my favorite beers and eventually my own recipes.
* Great for new, intermediate and expert brewers
* Very thorough
* Great sections like "Is My Beer Ruined or Brewing with Extracts and Specialty Grains"
* Overall a great read
Cons
Again, like most books and information on homebrewing there was very little support of pictures to illustrate the points being presented. There were a lot more pictures than The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian, but still, just not enough. In one instance Palmer is discussing clarity of wort coming out of the mash tun with black and white photos. Honestly, I couldnt see the point he was trying to illustrate with the photos.
The biggest con of the book is that there are pages that are very difficult to understand. Palmer can get very technical with some of his information, with math and formulas, which it is extremely easy to just want to skip it. There has to be a better way to present the information because it is exactly like trying to learn algebra, out of a textbook, without any practical practice problems or illustrations.
On top of that there was one instance that Palmer lost me. In one section he mentioned not adjusting the PH of your water before mashing because some malts will adjust it for you, but then the rest of the chapter was about adjusting the PH of your water for mashing. Still not sure if I should adjust the PH before or during.
* Not a lot of great pictures to illustrate points
* Can get extremely technical at times
* I personally got lost once in the book
Overall
The book is great and I highly recommend buying it, especially if you plan to move onto all grain brewing at some point in your brewing career. Half of this book is about all grain brewing and presents a lot of good information that would be exceptional to read before jumping head first into all grain brewing. I also believe it is a better starting homebrewing book than "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian.
The book is loaded with practical information about general brewing practices, ingredients, how tos, and an all around why things are the way they are in homebrewing. I would highly recommend this book to a novice and experienced brewer.
How bout you?
